American Go E-Journal » Europe

The AGF’s youth go website Tiger’s Mouth have put together a 20-member dream team to challenge Alexandre Dinerchtein 3P and his Insei League, who have been taking on all comers on KGS recently. The Insei League allows KGS players anywhere in the world to take part in a professional go school taught by Dinerchtein and other Korean Professionals. The Inseis crushed the British Go League team 7-3 on May 22nd, followed by a 10-3 rout of the Russian National Female Team (in which 2 of the 3 winners were also members of the Insei League as well as Russian nationals) on May 30th. Poland fought back in style on June 5 though, finally stopping the Inseis 13-7. “Your team will be the next one we beat,” said Dinerchtein, known as Breakfast on KGS, when he challenged the U.S. recently. “Not so fast Breakfast,” responded the AGF’s youth go website Tiger’s Mouth, who put together a 20-member dream team to challenge the Inseis. Team Tigersmouth has star youth players Curtis Tang 8d and Gansheng Shi 8d, plus Calvin Sun 7d, ten more dan level kids, and 7 kyu level players. The stage is set for Sunday June 13th in the AGA Tournaments room on KGS, at 10 am west coast time, observers are welcome. Pairings will be available shortly before the match here, Tigersmouth team info is available here.- Paul Barchilon, EJ Youth Editor

Cho Seok-Bin 7d of Korea (r) defeated Dai Janfu 7d of China in the final round to sweep the second annual Strasbourg Go Tournament, held May 29-30 in that city in eastern France. Dai was the winner of the first Strasbourg last year and came in second this year after his loss with a 3-1 record. Noguchi Motoki 6d came in third, while Viktor Lin 5d of Austria was the highest finishing European in fourth place.- EuroGoTV

Matthew Macfadyen 6d (r) was a perfect 7-0 in the British Go Association’s Challengers’ League, held in London May 28-31. The league determines which two players will play for the British Championship, which Macfadyen has won 23 times. Vanessa Wong 5d and Richard Hunter 4d were tied with five wins each at the end of the 8-player round robin, but Wong won the playoff and will face Macfadyen in the championship, which will be a five-game title match.- EuroGoTV

Csaba Mero 6d (r) of Hungary went 7-0 to win the Swiss Championship tournament, which was held in Lausanne May 22-24. Viktor Lin 5d of Austria was second at 6-1, only losing to Mero in round 5. John Walch 3d was third with a 5-2 record, and was the highest placing Swiss making him the 2010 Swiss Champion. Based on his result, Lorenz Trippel 1d will be the Swiss representative to the World Amateur Go Championship 2011.- EuroGoTV, photo by Judith van Dam, EuroGoTV

A week after his win in Madrid, Hwang In-Seong 8d (l) went undefeated again to win the Hamburger Affensprung, held in Hamburg, Germany May 22-24. The deciding game was played in round 4 when Hwang defeated long-time rival Cho Seok-Bin 7d who came in second with a 6-1 record. Antti Törmänen 6d of Finland came in third. Zeno van Ditzhuijzen, who was recently promoted to 1d, had a good tournament beating three 3d players and two 4d — a year ago he was 13k.- EuroGoTV, photo by Judith van Dam, EuroGoTV

Catalin Taranu 7d defeated Cristian Pop 7d in an exciting Balkan Go Championship 4th-round game that led to Taranu’s sweep of the May 19-23 event. Pop was second at 5-1 and Cornel Burzo 6d took third. Burzo did take first in the Blitz event, with Mihai Serban 4d second and Pop third. In the Pair Go event, Serban and Laura Avram 2d went 4-0 and captured first place. The tournament took place just outside of Bucharest, Romania.- EuroGoTV

Hwang In-Seong 8d went 5-0 to take top honors at the 13th Madrid Go Tournament, held May 15-16. Lluis Oh 6d was second with four wins, while Mao Feng 4d came in third at 3-2, including a surprising upset of Li Yue 5d. Hwang is currently third in the European Go Federation rankings. 63 players took part in the tournament.- EuroGoTV

Thomas Debarre 5d (r) won the French Youth Championship, held May 8-9 in Cachan, France. Debarre — who will represent France in this week’s World Amateur Go Championships in Hangzhou, China — edged out three other players with only one loss in the under-18 group. Debarre lost to Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia 4d, who lost to Paul Bivas 3d, who lost to Debarre. David Horowitz 1d came in second, while Dréan-Guénaïzia and Bivas came in third and fourth. In the under-15 group, Tanguy Le Calvé 1d took first for the second year in a row, Florian Melcer 2d was second, and Osmin Lacombe 1k finished third. For the youngest, under-12, group, Hector de Framond 14k took his first title after coming in second last year, Guillaume Ougier 20k, and Anais Khenniche 17k were second and third.- EuroGoTV

Omer Kazanc 1k defeated his main rival Selman Kilic 1d in the final fifth round of the Turkish Youth Championship, held in Istanbul May 15-16. Kazanc swept the tourney. Kilic took silver, while Muhammet Emin Kucuk 16k won bronze. 20 players took part in the tournament.- Peter Dijkema, EJ European correspondent

Fredrik Blomback 5d defended his title in the 2010 Svenska Mästerskapen in Norrköping, May 14-16. After three rounds in the Championship Tournament, he defeated John Karlsson 4d 2-0 in a play-off for the National Title. Weiying Sörlin 5d went 6-0 for third place in the tournament with 63 participants.- Peter Dijkema, EJ European correspondent